Daring Bakers: Scandinavian Gingerbread House - Pepparkakstuga

It was all about Hansel and Gretel in Soeren’s class this December. They studied the story, the characters and the grand finale was going to the Weimar Theatre to watch the fairy tale as an opera. He’s enjoyed the project very much and therefore, it was inevitable that when I saw what the Daring Bakers’ challenge was to be this year that we incorporate the tale into it.

I have to admit though I was missing the initial motivation for the challenge. We’ve been making gingerbread houses for Christmas for the past two years, using a brilliant recipe from one of Tom’s grandmother’s old cookbooks. The old cookbook is ancient but the recipe is perfect. It incorporates orange zest and other spices for an aromatic dough. Early December though I was just coming down from the London high and not in the total Christmas spirit yet.

It’s hard avoiding the Christmas spirit when one has a seven year old at home. His eyes gleaming each morning as he opened his advents calendar and counted down to Christmas. Soon enough his excitement was infectious and soon I began thinking up of ideas to realize the gingerbread house.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I decided to go with Y’s Scandinavian gingerbread house recipe, simply because for those who know me a little will know that almost everything Scandinavian attracts and intrigues me, especially this! ;o)

Seriously though, the Scandinavian recipe promised to be winner using many of the similar spices from my tried and tested German recipe.

However, we did have some trouble with the dough. It was hard, very crumbly and needed to be moistened quite a bit to allow us to really work with it. We halved the recipe for a small house and our theme was Hansel and Gretel. We finally did manage to roll out the dough enough to get us some decent templates – a base, two triangles for the front and the back and two rectangles to make up the gabled walls. We made some of the royal icing but mainly used melted chocolate to stick the parts together. Dried coconut gave the snow effect and we tiled the roof with colorful chocolate disks and pink colored royal icing. My neighbor made the lovely figures for the house – thanks D!

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

Draw and cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

Roll out the dough a little at a time on a floured work surface to a thickness of approximately 1/8-inch. Place the templates on the dough and, using a sharp knife, cut around the templates. Transfer the pieces to cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency.

Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

Verdict

We have not broken into the house yet so we cannot give the taste verdict. However, as most gingerbread houses are usually made to last instead of being delectable I presume this one will be no different. It does smell awesome though – of spices, coconut and sugar. Unlike other Scandinavian favorites this recipe was not too hot and next year we’ll be using our old German “Lebkuchenhaus” recipe again.

Hope you all had a grand Christmas and are enjoying filled bellies from delicious meals.

Happy holidays Meeta! Love the Hansel and Gretel theme and that you used chocolate and coconut for mortar and snow...will have to try that! Your house is beautiful and the friend's fairy tale figures very charming!

As always, you did a wonderful job! I love the snow. It's so gorgeous! I bought coconut for snow on my house, but I didn't end up using it for some reason. After seeing yours, I think that next time (if there is a next time!) I'll do that! And I love your neighbor's people - are they marzipan?

It is gorgeous Meeta! I love the decorations! I bet your son loved it! I agree, I love all things Scandinavian - have been doing quite a bit of Norwegian cooking during the holiday season! Happy New Year to you and yours!

Meeta, this is beautiful, I think it might be my favourite DB gingerbread house yet. I like the little people, they give it character! I am starting DB in January, wish I'd signed up a month earlier as I would have loved to have done of these.

I just think your gingerbread house is adorable Meeta! I think the template you used it kind of cute, rather then the standard more square version and those little figures are a wonderful addition. I do have to have your original recipe though!!

Your gingerbread house is wonderful!! I love the coconut snow and the figures outside are adorable! This looks different from the others, very unique!! I bet it tastes great too, especially with all the chocolate and coconut.

That is so beautiful! That shows that you have a great sense of creativity. I loved the innovative idea. In my terms, creativity is the utmost intelligence. I loved this wonderful gingerbread house. Wish you a very Happy New Year!

this is just the cutest gingerbread house i've seen ! i love it ! and i love the hansel & gretel project too, such fun - for soeren AND you !! i just want to pick off those chocolate non-pareils on the roof, one by one. best part is that little pretzel on top ! :) fabulous !

You have some marvelous gingerbread pictures! My church is having a gingerbread decorating day and I have to make an announcement for it to go in our Sunday morning power point presentation. Is it alright if I use one of your gingerbread house images as a background? We are non profit and would not use your image for commercial use.

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Hello, I am Meeta a freelance food photographer, stylist and writer living in the cuturally rich city of Weimar, Germany with my husband and our son, where I enjoy preparing multi-cultural home cooked meals with fresh organic ingredients. What's for lunch, Honey? is my award winning food blog where I combine my love for food with my love for photography and styling...